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U.S. and Israel Launch Joint Attack on Iran, Killing Supreme Leader and Hundreds of Civilians

HeadlineMar 02, 2026

The Iranian Red Crescent Society says more than 550 people have been killed since the U.S. and Israel launched a full-scale military assault on Iran early on Saturday. The unprovoked attack prompted Iran to launch missiles across the Middle East, targeting Israel and Gulf Arab nations. The joint U.S. and Israeli war on Iran began with a daytime assault on the high-security compound of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 86-year-old supreme leader. He was killed in the attack, along with his daughter and granddaughter, Iran’s defense minister, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, senior intelligence officials and other Iranian leaders. Scores of civilians have also been killed. In southern Iran, a missile struck a girls’ elementary school in the city of Minab, killing 165 people. Nearly 100 others were injured. Video of the aftermath shows rescuers searching through twisted concrete and rubble strewn with textbooks and backpacks, as screams are heard in the background.

First responder “As we entered the school, we saw the body of a teacher that had been cut in half. And as you can see, we are still clearing the debris, and even now body parts are still coming out.”

In another strike, 18 people — most of them children — were killed in Lamerd, in southern Iran, when a missile struck residences and a gymnasium. About 100 people were wounded in that attack. 

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